Massacres on the Danube bank in Budapest (Testimony of Erzsébet Róna)

The testimony of Erzsébet Róna from 1946 records an execution on the banks of the Danube, carried out by Arrow Cross gunmen in the first days of January 1945. Between October 1944 and January 1945, thousands of Jews were shot into the Danube on the Pest and Buda sides of the river. Sometimes the killers tied two or three people together and shot only one of them, so that the lifeless body would pull down those who were wired to the shot victim. Gunmen standing on the shore also fired at people emerging from under the water. Occasionally they killed their victims on the quay and dumped the bodies in the river. During these months, dozens of Jews, wounded, unconscious or confused by the shock suffered, who climbed out of the river with their last strength, were attended by ambulances. They owed their lives to luck, to their own composure or to the clumsiness of some Arrow Cross members inexperienced in handling weapons. Erzsébet Róna threw herself on the ground and pretended to be dead before the shots were fired, even as the Arrow Cross threw her onto the sandy bank from the quay. She finally reached safety thanks to German soldiers.

Cover image: the section of the Buda Lower Quay between the Chain Bridge and Margaret Bridge in 1943, where Erzsébet Róna survived the Arrow Cross attack in January 1945 (Fortepan, Balázs Boda)